The canal which connects Brecon
with the Monmouthshire Canal, some
33 miles [53km] to the south east, was built
between 1793 and 1812.
The canal is now an attractive waterway for pleasure boats, but it was
once a very important way of carrying heavy and bulky goods
for industry and agriculture.

Heavily loaded barges towed by horses
moved huge quantities of coal, iron, limestone and timber during much
of the Victorian age, until the new steam railways
took away most of the canal trade.

Canals
and the early railways, which used horse-drawn
wagons, were built to be used together.